1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to EDI transactions and, more particularly, to a method of performing EDI transactions over the Internet.
2. Related Art
Data transfer among business partners are commonly used to allow automated or semi-automated sharing of information by companies that provide related services. For example, when a manufacturer contracts out repair and service orders to independent service providers, data describing the service order placed by the client with the manufacturer needs to be transmitted to the independent service provider. In addition, data appraising the manufacturer of the progress of the service call must be transmitted back to the manufacturer by the independent service provider to allow the manufacturer to keep accurate records.
Current systems for transferring data relating to service orders between business partners perform the data transfers either over a direct connection between the business partners or via a third party communication partner. However, maintaining a direct connection between business partners is expensive, since a dedicated line is maintained between the partners. Often the data transfer volume among the business partners is not sufficient to amortize the cost of maintaining a dedicated line. To reduce costs, data transfers are thus performed via a third party communication partner. The third party communication partner performs data transfers more economically, as it provides the same service for a large number of clients. Third party communication partners, however, typically perform data transfers in batch overnight. As a result, a typical turnaround time for servicing a call via an independent service provider requires several working days. This is undesirable in environments which require prompt response to service calls. Accordingly, there is a need for an inexpensive method and apparatus of transferring data among business partners which allows for fast turnaround of service calls.
In accordance to an embodiment of the present invention a method and apparatus for performing event-driven data transfer operations over a global computer network are provided. This is accomplished by extracting data from a database stored on a first computer system connected to a global computer network, monitoring the data extracted from the database to determine whether the data is ready to be transmitted to a second computer system connected to the global computer network, and transmitting the data to the second computer system. The second computer system, in turn, receives the data transmitted from the first computer system, monitors the data to determine whether the data is ready to be merged into a database stored on the second computer system, and merges the data into the database. The second computer system may then transmit data back to the first computer system using a method analogous to the one just described.
Unlike prior art techniques, in which data transfers are performed in batch off-line, embodiments of the invention allow for secure data transfer operations to be performed on-line in real-time. In addition, since a global computer network is utilized, there is no need to maintain a dedicated communication line between the first and the second computer system, but rather a single network connection can be used by the first and the second computer system to communicate with any number of computer systems connected to the global computer network.